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SURFER GIRL GEEK |
By Kathy Maeglin,
The Capital Times
Thursday, Feb 26, 1998
When Zanne Marie Gray was named one of Madison Magazine's top 50 movers and
shakers this year, her response was to post this message on her personal Web page:
'"This would have meant a whole lot more if Gene the Cloned Calf hadn't also made the
top 50."
That zany sense of humor is just one ingredient in the eclectic mix that is Zanne
Marie Gray, a woman as unique as her first name (which was created by her parents and is
Pronounced ZAN).
Gray is president of The Industry Connection, a Web site design and
hosting company. One of its primary products is Surf Madison, a Web site with links
to local news, shopping, banking, community information, etc. (www.surfmadison.com)
In about five years, Gray has established herself as a major player in the Internet services
business. Nice work for a woman who just turned 36; in the 1980’s was a hedonistic
punker with a big white mohawk who managed bands; and whom friend Frank LaRosa
described as being "as unpredictable as an atomic bomb to a Newtonian physicist."
What's rather amazing about all this is that Gray is primarily self-taught, having had no
formal education in computers other than one programming class in college.
So how did she get where she is? A little luck, a lot of work and a ton of vision. After
Gray went through her "rebellious phase," she got into training and development. She
eventually started her own T&D firm called Integrated Learning through which she
teaches a course called "The Power to Create: Taking Your Life Off Remote Control."
After teaching the course for seven years, she suddenly had one entire class ask her, "So
Zanne, what are you going to do?"
"At the time I had just finished my first semester teaching online and loved it and saw this
incredible promise," Gray recalls. "Once I got that people could take my class and,
without having anything to represent themselves but text, could come across as a whole,
unique personality, I was hooked. I said what I want to do is go into this emerging field of
cyberspace and stake my claim and make a difference."
So in 1993, The Industry Connection was born. Its first creation was a computer bulletin
board system for the awards industry. (Gray's parents own Total Awards & Promotions,
7475 Mineral Point Rd., which is where The Industry Connection was originally located.) Gray
basically taught herself as she went along. "I think anybody can learn this stuff if they
always, always remember if you have a problem, it's probably not the computer's fault,"
she says. "99.99 percent of problems are user error, and most people are just too
egocentric to think that."
Then Gray went to an industry convention in Colorado that was a bit of an eye-opener.
"There were 5,000 men with really bad haircuts and me," she recalls. "I always laughed at
the whole geek thing and thought, 'Oh please, I'm a geek and I'm cool, so therefore all
geeks must be cool. Well, I found out that wasn't true at all." But Gray and her all-female
staff are proud to be called "girl geeks," a term that originated in those early years. Gray
explains that she co-wrote a chat program that became the most popular chat program in
cyberspace, and her name became well known.
"People would get into arguments and say, 'You know, Zanne's a really good
programmer, I've met him before.' And then the reply was always, 'You dope, Zanne's a
girl.' So I was always referred to as a girl, and I was like, 'That's cool, I have no problem
with being a girl geek.'"
But there's nothing geeky about how The Industry Connection has taken off, launching
Surf Madison 1995 and serving a host of clients, including Wisconsin Cheeseman, Orange Tree Imports,
Guy Wolff Pottery, In Business Magazine, and Cornblooms.
While Gray says the company is definitely profitable, she insists she has no idea how
much it made last year. "I'm not good at money, so I've arranged it so I don't have to
deal with that, and that makes me very happy."
Gray says she has a different way of defining success: "We are
in a position right now that we can turn someone down because we
don't think we'd be happy working with them, and that's wonderful."
It also gives her time to pursue pet projects such as the recently
created Book Buffet, a "positive" book review site that promotes
new authors.
In addition to her passion for reading, Gray is a TV addict. One of her favorite shows is
"Xena: Warrior Princess," and she collects female action figures.
She also likes to date, but sometimes her workaholism gets
in the way.
"I like to work seven week," she says. "I've gone out on dates where we just
came back here and played on the Internet. Isn't that sick?"
Her clients may not think so. "One thing I've always liked about
Zanne is, if you ask her, 'Can we do this, can we try that,' she never
says no," says Dave Trabert, general manager and vice president of
NBC 15. "She might say, 'Well, I don't know, but let's find out.' She
has a very positive attitude, and she's willing to do the work to see
if it can be done."
One of Gray's eight employees, Nicole Reinbold, says the key is
Gray's energy level. "She has more energy, I think, than anybody I've ever met in my life.
It's incredible."
Reinbold is a good example of the kind of person Gray likes to
hire. She was not computer illiterate, but she had never done any
programming -- her degree was in creative writing.
"We have an internship program," Gray explains, "and when women come to us, we
prefer that they don't know any programming at all. We look for women who can
envision the completed project and work backwards.
"The imagination and the creating out there in space is what's most important. If we can
find someone with that kind of imagination and the willingness to learn, we can teach them
anything.''
Gray feels the Internet industry is an excellent field for women. "I
think that creating something beautiful out of nothing is a talent
that women can more easily access than men can, that it takes
the ability to think non-linearly, and men have been trained to
think linearly. Designing well on the Web and making someone's
business into a piece of art is something that takes a lot of intuition and a lot of flow, and I think women are brilliant at that."
She also thinks Madison has a much stronger old girls' network
than it does an old boys' network. "I think it has a lot to do with Wisconsin Women
Entrepreneurs, the Business Forum, Wisconsin Women in Business -- there's a lot
of really strong, cohesive women's organizations that are there with
the sole purpose to mentor other women and to work as a support
group for women in business, and they're fabulous.
"I actually would recommend that any woman who wants to get
into business find one or two of them to join."
Some other nuggets of wisdom Gray offers for women who may
want to follow her lead include:
-
Get mentored. "I had a number of mentors -- my mother
(Donna Gray) is a great mentor, and in fact, she actually mentors a
lot of women in business."
- Have a sense of humor. "If you can laugh, everything can be
OK," says Gray, whose brother is well-known local comedian Dave
Gray.
- If you have the vision, just keep going. "Just believe in yourself, and surround yourself
with other people who believe in you. There are always going to be people who don't and
just go, 'Thank you very much,' and walk away.
Gray says her favorite quote is from the author Robert A. Heinlein: "Always listen to
experts. They'll tell you what can't be done and why. Then do it."
As for the future, Gray says a couple of the projects she's involved in include designing a
virtual reality game for the Internet and doing some deep Internet research for NBC 15.
But as she says, "In this industry, the future is happening right now, and I can't think more
than a couple of months down the line because we're constantly having to
learn new stuff and invent new stuff."
It's that kind of new-horizon potential that motivates her. "I look at cyberspace as being
what I think it's going to be when my niece and nephew are my age and
I see it as this gigantic repository of all this information, and I want
to have a hand in creating that and in making sure the information that goes up there is
good and clean information, and that people are able to represent themselves and their
opinions and their philosophies."
Honesty, integrity and straight communication are essential ingredients of Gray's business
philosophy.
"Zanne really makes it OK to be honest and communicative,
and a lot of businesses talk about that, but I haven't seen a business
be as successful at it as this one is," says employee Lisa Antoniotti.
"I'm very honest," Gray says, "to the point where maybe that irritates people, and that's
OK with me. I'd rather be honest than liked.
"I'm a really, really happy person," Gray concludes. "I have a
great life. I believe in living a really clean life -- not clean in my
house, but in every other way." | |
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